The 350 booklets that were printed had all but disappeared by the time the third group departed for the farm walk on Western Pastures dairy farm, near Castlerea in Co Roscommon on Wednesday.
The farm is owned by the Bailey family who were prominent builders and developers during the Celtic Tiger era.
Mick Bailey said that he inherited a 35-acre farm from his father, which he grew to 300 acres by purchasing 14 neighbouring farms along with a 120-acre out block.
In total, there are 166ha in the farm, with 119ha in the milking block. The farm was in cattle and sheep for a number of years but he said the family were anxious to make better use of the large block of good-quality land.
In late 2016, members of the West Awake Discussion group visited the farm. It was advertised for long-term lease and they set about investigating if the group could work together on the project.
Shareholder Timmy Quinn says the farm was in poor condition but they saw that it had potential. They brought a spade with them to assess the soil types.
A lease was signed between seven group members plus their accountant, Martin Clarke from ifac in May 2017 for a 20-year lease.
Considerable investment was required to convert the farm to dairy and no security was available for loans.
“That’s the challenge with leased land: there’s no security, so getting a traditional bank loan is not possible.
"Each of the farmers put up stock and cash so we have eight equal shareholders. 
"Finance was secured through EIS funding, unsecured bank financed, finance and leasing for plant and equipment and also private investors who are paid a commercial rate of return,” Martin says.
At the moment the farm is milking 430 cows at 15.7l, 4.02% protein and 5.05% fat or 1.47kg MS/cow. The herd is all first and second lactation and has 347kg MS/cow produced to date.
The land is good but rainfall in the area is high and there was some water lodging in fields after heavy rain the night before the walk.
The farm has grown 13.5t/ha to date this year and is on track to produce over 15.5t/ha in 2019. The whole farm was reseeded between 2017 and 2018.
Cows are on track to produce 440kg of milk solids per cow despite being 1st and 2nd lactation from 600 to 700kg of meal. Western Pastures Dairy @FJDairy pic.twitter.com/RkX9sg8vYT
— Aidan Brennan (@aidan_bren) 11 September 2019
Investment
Huge investment has been made in farm roadways, infrastructure, housing, slurry storage, milking and silage storage.
A total of €1.49m has been spent to date with a further €84,000 earmarked for an underpass and upgrades to a calf shed. These figures exclude VAT and are before grant aid and don't include the cost of the animals.
The farm has been designed with 500 cows in mind. The 50-bail Dairymaster rotary parlour cost €892/cow. The 480-cow cubicle shed and slurry tower and concrete tank cost €1,040/cow.
Roadways (3.2km long and 5m wide), water, fencing and seeding cost €728/cow. The silage slab cost €126/cow while ESB, planning and levies cost €168/cow. Of this, three-phase electricity cost €45,000 alone.
Shareholder Sean Sweeney explains the reasons for the 50 bail rotary and 480 cow roofed cubicle shed @FJDairy @farmersjournal #Roscommon pic.twitter.com/NhlSJNSkRp
— Aidan Brennan (@aidan_bren) 11 September 2019
“Let there be no illusions, this farm won’t make any surplus cash for the first 12 years. Our plan is to pay back debt for the first half of the lease. Any surplus cash generated next year will be used to build up a rainy day fund. Over the course of the lease, the return will be in the region of eight to 10%,” Martin says.
